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Halo Wars 2 includes a range of multiplayer modes. In keeping with the lore that gave us Cortana, there’s even a new sentient AI named Isabel to guide you. In fact, after a while you won’t even care that Master Chief is nowhere to be seen, as these grungier, more battle-worn characters have plenty of personality and intrigue. Although the game takes place shortly after the events of Halo 5, the early feel is much more like Battlestar Galactica, as crusty old Captain Cutter and his depleted crew set about restoring order to the Ark.
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The plot sees the battlecruiser Spirit of Fire, emerging from a 28-year cryosleep and confronted by a new Covenant faction the Banished and their brutish leader, Atriox. Development duties have switched to strategy specialist Creative Assembly (the Total War series) and Halo specialist 343 Industries, but otherwise this is instantly familiar stuff to fans of the original. Luckily, Halo Wars 2 arrives with plenty of shock and awe in its arsenal – not just a rollicking 13-level campaign but a flurry of multiplayer modes and a whole new game type called Blitz. So all credit to Microsoft for having another go at taking its most treasured IP in this most difficult of directions. Today, two of those mighty names are no more and even 2009’s Halo Wars, which tried to re-think the whole experience from the ground up, proved to be developer Ensemble Studios’ final game. It’s now nearly a decade since Starcraft, Command & Conquer and Age of Empires regularly duked it out at the top of the charts.
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F ew genres have fallen from grace quite as fast as the real-time strategy (RTS).